Home Coming (The Survivalist Book 10) by A. American (ebook reader .TXT) 📕

“No. I imagine he’s going to get help,” Sarge added.

“Looks that way,” I replied. “Let’s just get out of the boat and wait for them. If we go wandering around, it’ll only look more suspicious. If we’re just hanging out here, we look less threatening.”

Sarge agreed and we all climbed out of the boat. We took a moment to stretch out legs and grab a drink. Sarge was filling his cup with coffee when a group of people began appearing. There was a main group, coming straight down the road towards the boat ramp and two smaller ones flanking them on either side. They were being cautious, not that I blame them.

As the group advanced, I took a couple of steps toward them. I’d decided to leave the rifle in the boat, so as to appear less threatening. I hoped the shooting didn’t start. But the old man was standing beside the Minimi, so there was that.

The group stopped at a distance of maybe thirty yards. They looked scared and all of them were armed in some fashion or another. One had an AR, the rest was a collection of shotguns, pistols, revolvers and lever and bolt-action guns. One old timer even had an M1 Garand. They looked ragged. Their clothes hung from their shrunken frames.

One of their fellows stepped forward tentatively and called out. “What do you want?”

“I’m looking for my dad, Butch! Butch Carter!” I called back.

The man turned and looked back at the crowd behind him. Then I saw a thin man break away from the group on the right side and start walking towards the ramp. It was Dad, but it didn’t look like him. I started to walk towards him and as I did, the leader of the group in front shouted for me to stop.

“Knock that shit off!” Dad called out, “That’s my son!” And I knew it was him and started to jog towards him.

When I got to him, I wrapped him up in a hug. He was much thinner than I remember, almost frail. I could feel his ribs when I embraced him. After a long minute, we finally let go enough to look at one another. There were tears in his eyes, just like the ones in mine. Then we started to laugh. Then, we hugged again, with tears streaming down our faces.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” Dad said.

“Sorry it took so long to get here,” I replied, feeling the weight of how long it took me to make it here.

He pulled away from me. “Are you crazy? None of that matters. What matters is you’re here now. Your mom is going to be surprised to say the least.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s at home right now.”

“Let me introduce you to someone. I think you know the other guy,” I said, pointing to Danny and Sarge who were still standing by the boat.

Dad looked towards the boat and saw Danny. A broad smile spread across his face. “You brought Danny with you?”

I put my arm around him and we started towards the boat. As we walked, one of the men from the group called out, “Butch, where are you goin?”

Dad looked back, “I’m alright. You guys can go on. We’re good here.”

Danny walked up and offered his hand. Dad shook it and asked how he was. Danny held up the injured hand and replied, “Not bad, all things considered.”

“What the hell happened?”

“We’ve been through a lot.” Danny replied.

Dad looked at me. “They’re all fine. We’re all ok.”

A look of relief washed over him. “Good, good.”

“I want to introduce you to someone,” I said. When Sarge walked up, I introduced the two.

“Good to meet you, Butch. Morgan has been wanting to come here for a long time. But things have been preventing it,” Sarge replied.

“It’s alright. You’re all here now.”

“Let’s go see mom,” I said.

“Good idea,” Dad replied and we all started towards his house.

“What are you carrying there?” Sarge asked.

Dad looked at the little carbine tucked under his arm. “It’s the Circuit Judge, a .410 and .45 long Colt.”

Sarge laughed. “That’s a hell of a combo!”

“Yeah. You ain’t always got the gun you want. You gotta use the one you brought. And this is what I had.”

“Ain’t that the damn truth!”

Dad looked over at Sarge, “You in the 101st?”

The old man nodded, “Retired. You?”

“I arrived in Vietnam right after Tet. Spent most of my time up in the A Sầu Valley at Camp Eagle.”

“That was an ugly place. What was your MOS?”

“Crew chief and door gunner on a LOACH.”

Sarge reached out and slapped Dad on the back, “I knew I liked you! That was a hell of a job. How many of those have you had shot out from under you?”

“Three.”

“And made it out alive. That’s a hell of an accomplishment.”

“How did you two meet?” Dad asked as we turned onto his street.

I laughed, “That’s a long story. Way more than we could cover on this short walk.”

“Like hell!” Sarge barked. “I saved his ass! And it’s all I’ve been doing since then!”

“I forgot to tell you something,” I said. “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s so full of shit he doesn’t even see reality.”

Sarge put his arm around Dad’s shoulders. “I don’t know how you did it. But it must have been a hell of a job to turn him into what he is today. I can’t imagine what it was like trying to raise his ignorant ass.”

“Say what you want, old man. You wouldn’t have a place to live if it weren’t for me,” I said.

Before Sarge could explode, Dad reached over and tapped the star on my chest. “What’s this?”

“Another long story,” I said.

Sarge jabbed a thumb at me and said, “He’s the Sheriff of the north half of Lake county.”

“How the hell did you pull that off?”

“Wasn’t my idea,” I replied. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about all this shit. It’s been a hell of a ride since the Day.”

Turning up Dad’s driveway,